On Hostels

I was talking to my dad a few weeks ago when he asked me about the hostel. This made me realise that a lot of the things I take for granted, you know nothing about. So here are the highs and lows of hostels.

Nowadays hostels are very different from when I went inter-railing twenty years ago. The modern hostel is generally very welcoming in the same way that prostitutes claim to offer the "real girlfriend experience" (don't ask me how I know, just believe me) so hostels claim to offer a "home from home". Let us examine the ways...

Sleeping: most hostels accommodate you in dorms, rooms with between two and twelve beds, usually bunk beds. However, most hostels also have private rooms which can be booked for a group, a couple or an individual. These rooms are in short supply so if you want one you need to book well ahead of time. Unfortunately the tendency here in South America is for the matresses to be made of foam. Said matresses can be good or bad. Good if they are thick and/or new. Bad if they aren't. Occasionally, you will come across a sprung matress, unfortunately these tend to be old and saggy. In Argentina and Chile the choice is thin and narrow whereas Peru prefers thick and wide. Odd, considering Peruvians are the physically smallest of the three nationalities. As well as bunkbeds (which can be stacked so low you cannot sit up in the bottom bunk, or so high you need to be a mountaineer to get into the top bunk) modern hostels supply bedding and (occasionally) towels.

Bedding: The type of bedding you get makes a huge difference to how well you sleep. Most hostels use hard flat foam pillows (which are too thin for my liking) but can be folded in half for more comfort. The best hostels use some form of puffed foam filled pillow which can be moulded to your head. In addition to sheets (more later) you also get a bedspread or, in the best places, down-filled duvets which can be folded up and put under your pillow for more comfort when the weather is warm. In towns where it's regularly cold the likelihood is that you will get one or two extremely heavy woollen blankets. Great in theory but combined with a thin matress, it's hip hell. Also the blankets don't seem to quite fit the bed when there is a person sleeping in it and there is the necessity to cocoon yourself in order to keep warm. Which leads us to sheets. Ah yes, sheets. Decent cotton sheets which are changed either every day, every guest or every week (if the guest stays longer) or, at a push, new polycotton sheets. Cotton sheets are more expensive initially but last longer and can be washed more often. Polycotton is cheaper and comes in pretty colours and patterns. You take your pick.

Bathing: this is probably the most difficult thing for hostels to get right. Rooms either come with an on-suite bathroom or shared amongst several dorms. Usually there are toilets, handwash basins and shower stalls but rarely a bath. In Argentina and Chile the showers work like the ones you're used to. In Peru the water is heated in the shower head (water and electricity - wonderful combination). Thus when a Peruvian hostel says it has 24 hour hot water (a major selling point) what they mean is hot showers but not hot water to wash your face/hands at the end of the day. Doesn't matter, just have another shower!

Eating: it is pretty much standard nowadays for the hostel to provide a kitchen for the guests to use. This is great because it means you don't have to eat out all the time. The downside is that you're sharing a kitchen with people who've never had to look after themselves before, don't know how to wash up and think nothing of stealing your food if they haven't bothered to buy any or have run out of something (my milk disappears on a regular basis). You're are supposed to write your name on everything you buy but equally everything is stored in one family sized fridge (can you imagine just how chaotic it is?). Which brings me onto the second point. Sometimes the kitchen is actually the family kitchen and has not been adapted for use by many people eg. one sink, one cooker, one worksurface. Add to this the family themselves wishing to cook and there is a potential for chaos (especially, as in Chile, the family includes chilren who resent the guests having the best television or internet connection, and who regularly browse through the fridge to see if anything has been left behind).

Entertainment: Don't know what to do in the evening? watch tv, watch a dvd/video or surf the internet. Don't want to do any of the above, then speak to other guests, there's always someone to talk to. Internet connections have been standard in every hostel I've stayed in and mostly it's free.

Staff: Staff make or break a hostel. In a good hostel, the receptionist is friendly, welcoming and always willing to help. I've found the hostel run by people who've been travelling are the most helpful with family-run businesses coming second. The worse ones are those whose owners see it just as a business - this filters down to the staff who think nothing of the casual rip-off (not providing receipts for paid items then not removing paid items from the final bill)

Cheap Hostels: cheap hostels aren´t actually cheap in price just in attitude. Examples include cramming in an extra bed (your seven bed dorm has eight beds), turning off the hot water early in the evening, polycotton sheets so old that they´ve started pilling (and I do have sensitive skin - I notice these things) or sheets too small for the bed. In addition, the use of ecologically sound long-life bulbs but turning them off at 10pm and not providing handsoap in the communal bathrooms.

I have to say the most extreme example of cheapness I've come across was the hostel which expected the guests to provide their own washing up liquid and to clean the kitchen as "only guests use the kitchen therefore guests should clean it". A reasonable rationale on the surface but who is going to wipe down the surfaces, clean the cooker hood or mop the floor?

So there you are. In my time travelling I've been tempted by the thought of opening a hostel, using all my experience to make it into a really good one but the truth is, running a hostel is bloody hard work. Me? I think I'll stick to teaching.